A Hong Kong nurse who has just returned from war-torn Gaza has warned of a deepening mental health crisis among Palestinians, especially children.
A boy walks on the rubble of a house destroyed in an Israeli strike at the Nuseirat refugee camp, central Gaza Strip, on November 12, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas. Photo: Eyad Baba/AFP.
Krystal So recounted her experience of returning to the maternity ward in the Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza between September and early-November, her second six-week deployment there this year with medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).
War broke out following a Hamas attack on Israeli soil on October 7, 2023, during which more than 250 hostages were taken and over 1,000 people were killed.
Israel’s retaliatory strikes on the Gaza Strip have killed 43,000 Palestinians, according to Palestine’s Ministry of Health. Gaza, together with the West Bank, form the state of Palestine and have been under Israeli military occupation since 1967.
Speaking during a press conference on Wednesday – just a day after she returned from Gaza – the Hong Kong nurse said despair had taken hold of the Palestinian population since her last visit between May and July this year.
“Many people wished for a ceasefire last time,” she said in Cantonese. “Whereas there’s more despair this time. Hope has turned into despair.”
Krystal So, a Médecins Sans Frontières volunteer, recounts her experience as a nurse in Gaza on November 13, 2024. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.
So is a nurse specialising in maternity services. She said her focus in Gaza was on women and children, whose needs for fertility, mental health, and nutrition were not adequately being met.
“You could see a complete difference in the children just three months apart. They have been shelled and have faced death everyday, and they have begun to have a lot of emotional problems,” she said.
“Last time, I saw kids still playing, sometimes smiling. This time I saw more children rummaging through trash, begging for food, and those who have been orphaned,” she added.
“I think war has the most profound impact on children … they have lost their future.”
Of the reported deaths in Gaza, 17 per cent were women and 33 per cent were children, according to an MSF fact sheet distributed on Wednesday.
Krystal So, a Médecins Sans Frontières volunteer, recounts her experience as a nurse in Gaza on November 13, 2024. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.
So said a lack of food and poor hygiene conditions had severely affected the health of women and children, leading to miscarriages, infection and malnutrition.
“I lost three kilogram in just six weeks. You can imagine how people living there are suffering from malnutrition,” she said.
Meanwhile, sexual violence against women had been increasing and mental health support for women had been neglected, she said.
So spent her time in Gaza setting up mental health aid programmes for women and children in the Nasser Hospital and in clinics around the region, she said.
But she and other MSF medical workers often had to evacuate after receiving orders from the Israel Defense Forces.
A Médecins Sans Frontières vehicle is displayed in Hong Kong on November 13, 2024. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.
So said two of her MSF colleagues died during her recent deployment. “It was devastating news. For a couple of days the entire facility was not able to operate,” she said.
More than 1,000 health workers and 300 aid workers have been killed since the beginning of the war – including eight MSF workers – according to the MSF fact sheet.
The medical NGO has called for an immediate and sustained ceasefire, the reopening of Gazan borders, and urged all parties to stop targeting medical facilities and personnel in the region.
‘Emergency mode’
Israeli forces invaded southern Lebanon last month in an escalation of conflict with armed group Hezbollah, launching air strikes and a ground operation in the neighbouring country.
Ryan Ko, a Hong Kong surgeon, was deployed by MSF to southern Lebanon earlier this month. During the same press conference on Wednesday, Ko said his team had been working with local authorities to set up a medical facility in the region.
While there had not been fighting near his location, Ko said he heard fighter jets flying over on a daily basis.
Jenny Tung, the interim executive director for MSF Lebanon, speaks via a video link in a press conference in Hong Kong on November 13, 2024. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.
MSF had changed its operation in Lebanon to “emergency mode” and had begun providing mass casualty management and trauma care trainings to medical workers in the frontline, Jenny Tung, the interim executive director for MSF Lebanon, told reporters via video link.
“We call for all parties to de-escalate in Lebanon,” Tung said in Cantonese. “We do not wish to see another situation like Gaza.”
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